Generally speaking, early (prior to 1000AD) European periods included women as warriors more commonly than later periods. During the Roman Empire, women fought in the public arenas, both as free women and as slaves. They competed in the opening of the Coliseum in AD 80. According to Juvenal, it became fashionable for women of the nobility to train and fight in the arenas until Emperor Alexander Severus, in AD 200, issued an edict which banned all women from gladiatorial combat. While the Romans do not appear to have left records regarding women in their own ranks, period historians frequently mention women in the ranks of their enemies, especially those to the north of Italy.

The Spartans and Athenians trained their girls in the art of war and encouraged their participation in competitive war games. Plato, in his Republic, stated that women should become soldiers if they desired although he later modified that in his Laws. Musonius Rufus (AD 30-101) advocated that women and men should receive the same education and training. Although he did not appear to go so far as to include training for war, he did indicate that differences in education should be based on ability and strength, not gender.

The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, tells us that the Greeks, having defeated the Amazons, were taking several boatloads of Amazonian slaves on the Black Sea when the slaves overthrew their captors and escaped. Landing on the shores of the Sea of Azov (northeast side of the Black Sea in the modern Ukraine), they intermarried with the nomadic horsemen called Scythians. Regardless of the truth of this history, the Scythians apparently included women as a matter of course in military endeavors. Twenty-five percent of the Sythian gravesites which have been discovered contained women (as determined through DNA testing). These graves had swords, spears, armor and other items of war along with more typical female items such as spindles and mirrors. Some of these graves indicated high status in that the woman was buried with a male servant and/or a horse. This was done to provide servants to aide the warrior in the afterlife.

What about the infamous `Amazons�? There has been a great deal of argument about whether they actually existed. De Paw (6) notes �?There is far more evidence, both literary and archeological, than survives for other people, such as the Hittites or Massagetae, whose existence is unquestioned�? The original Amazons appear to have lived in Libya. Rock drawings have been discovered in Libya which show women armed with bows. The Greek historians make mention of them often and report battling Amazons after the Trojan War. Numerous cities, attributed by period historians to the Amazons do, in fact, exist. In the city of Ephesus a temple to the goddess Artemis exists and is attributed to the Amazons.

Strabo (100BC), Plutarch (102BC) Dio Cassius (49 AD), (Tactus, 60AD) all record the existence of women warriors in northern and eastern cultures with great regularity. Roman accounts of battles record finding bodies of female warriors on the battlefield. Thirty captive Gothic warrior women were paraded in front of Emperor Aurelian in 283 AD.

Saxo Grammaticus, writing his History of the Danes in 1200AD, mentions a number of fighting women in Denmark. Numerous other Danish women are listed in various histories as leaders of troops and `sword maidens�? While some of them are daughters of kings, some of them appear to be just regular folk.

Saxon culture in 100 AD regarded women as equals with men. When marrying, men gave the women oxen, horses and bridle, shield and spear while she gave him armor or weapons. Graves of Teutonic women have been discovered which included armor, shield, lance, and sword. According to an article in the Times (8/22/00), DNA testing proves that two bodies buried with spears and knifes, dated AD 450-650, were women. Other graves in England and Denmark have been proven to be women buried with swords and other armaments.

Cimbrian women (100 BC) rode in moving `wagon castles�?and shot arrows at the enemy. They would occasionally emerge from the ‘castle�?and fight with swords.

http://www.swordmaiden.com/history/mundane/overview.php